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Fantastic Physics 19.10.12

Loughborough Grammar School’s latest Science development, a new Physics building, was opened on Wednesday 17th October at 12 noon, by Professor Ian White, Master of Jesus College Cambridge and President of the Loughborough Endowed Schools.

The opening marks the fourth phase of a five-year Science and Mathematics re-development scheme which is the most ambitious capital project undertaken by the Schools and which, in total, is costing £11 million. The building, named after Neville Ireland (Headmaster, 1984 to 1998) completes the laboratory provision in the Science Park and replaces the original Science Building housing all three subjects which was opened in 1963. Physics, Chemistry and Biology now have discrete world-class facilities serviced by centrally-placed preparation rooms, each subject having six dedicated laboratories. In addition to the six new laboratories in the Ireland Building there is also an 80-seat lecture theatre and demonstration room.

The school has an enviable reputation for its science teaching and it now has some of the best science facilities of any school of comparable standing, a fact borne out by the very high proportion of pupils who choose to study Mathematics and Sciences beyond GCSE and whose results are universally outstanding. On average, at least 15 pupils per year go on to read medical sciences at university (many at Oxford and Cambridge) and very nearly 50% of Year 13s elect to pursue science and engineering degrees.

There is a tradition of Masters of Jesus College opening science and mathematics buildings at the school and it is particularly appropriate that Professor White should open the Physics Building as he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is also the van Eck Professor of Engineering at Cambridge.